


Virgil Sanders and the Big, Bad Dream

by AuthorAlex97 (Sweetie_Curfy)



Series: A Little Anxious [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Crying, Drowning, Emotional Manipulation, Nightmares, Parental Panic, Toddler Virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 07:21:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15480525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweetie_Curfy/pseuds/AuthorAlex97
Summary: Virgil wakes up in the middle of the night from a terrible nightmare, only to discover that he’s regressed again. Luckily for him, his dad will always be there. [Sequel to A Little Anxious]





	Virgil Sanders and the Big, Bad Dream

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my 3000th post on Tumblr, and I knew a lot of folks (on Tumblr at least) really loved A Little Anxious and asked for more, so I finally got around to it! Hope yinz enjoy!

_Virgil was alone._

_His eyes snapped open to a solid pitch black darkness surrounding him. There was no light, no sound, no air, no air, he couldn’t breathe, he was going to die—_

_A footstep behind him. He whirled around._

_“Who’s there?!”_

_A breeze brushed the back of his neck; his head snapped around in every direction, but there was nothing to be seen. He swallowed thickly._

_“Hello…?”_

_“Oh, Anxiety…”_

_A glint of yellow flashed in the corner of his eye. Before he had the chance to look, something snatched his wrist. Virgil let out a yell as he was yanked back._

_“Stop!”_

_Chilling laughter echoed as a cold, slimy…_ something _slithered around his waist and constricted. A wheeze ripped out of him._

_“How naive you were to think I’d ever let you go,” the voice sung. “To think you were ever worth something…”_

_He opened his mouth to retort, but it filled with water before any noise could come out. It trickled down his throat, into his lungs, choking him, drowning him—_

_“Those monstrous sides really have you wrapped around their fingers. Corrupting you into believing those lies… Oh, it just breaks my heart to see you turning into them.”_

_The glint of yellow reappeared, just a few feet in front of him this time. Virgil squirmed, trying to get out of the grip of whatever was holding him there, but it only tightened and choked him further. Bile rose in his throat._

_Scales came into view, and then a face that grinned and sent shivers down at him. A hand came down to cup his cheek; it was bigger than his whole head._

_“I always thought you had potential, Anxiety,” Deceit hissed. “I knew the others were always far too gone to save, but you were different. You were so much better than them. Always doing what you must to save Thomas, while they sat around and villainized us. Animals, really!”_

_He pulled his hand away and shook his head, shutting his eyes. Virgil swallowed thickly and looked down._

_“Look at you now, though. You’ve turned into just as big a monster as they are. There’s no saving you now. You’re nothing but a villain, no matter which way you look at it. You’ve hurt them in the past, and you’re hurting us now.”_

_Virgil sucked in a shaking breath before a gloved hand snatched his chin and forced him to look into Deceit’s piercing eyes. His other hand lifted to hover by his face._

_“You’ve trusted them far more than they deserve,” he growled. “I wanted to help you. You were family, after all. But this, Virgil?”_

_He shuddered._

_“This will be your downfall.”_

_Deceit snapped, and fall he did._

_Down,_

_Down,_

_Down…_

* * *

Shuddering gasp ripping through his lungs, Virgil’s eyes snapped open; he moved to sit up, but his arms were entangled, _the monster still had him it wasn’t_ _a_ _dream_ — until he wrangled himself to freedom and whirled around to sit on his knees. The blankets tumbled off of his shoulders as he panted, and the breeze from the air conditioning chilled goosebumps into his arms.

Wait.

He wasn’t wearing his jacket.

But no, that couldn’t be right, he slept in it every night, he hardly ever took it off unless Patton made him to put it in the wash, why would it be—

Dread pooled into his stomach. He looked down.

Virgil was kneeling on it. But it was nearly twice his size, and his hands were tiny.

His vision blurred.

* * *

Patton was fully aware that Logan would be incredibly disappointed in him right now.

As the Parks and Rec theme softly sounded again, his eyes flicked to the clock on the wall. 3:27 am: two and a half hours before Logan would be up, three and a half before Roman, and anywhere from three to five hours before Virgil, depending on how much his anxiety would allow him to sleep tonight. Patton himself wouldn’t be up until well after 10, so he could probably avoid Logan’s scolding glare, but he knew from experience that he couldn’t dodge it if he was still awake when Logan got up.

There was still plenty of time, though. Time enough to watch just a couple more episodes.

He yawned and settled in closer to the big Snorlax plush in his arms. It was getting towards the time that Patton should be setting his glasses to the side in case he fell asleep mid-episode, but he felt no motivation towards doing so. They pressed against his face and skewed thanks to Snorlax; normally, he’d ajust to fix it, but he simply let it happen this time.

His tired mind focused in and out on the episode, eyes fluttering open and shut.

…Something was wrong.

Patton blinked blearily and lifted his head at the twist of his gut, one of the legs of his glasses falling over his ear and down his face. A frown etched onto his face as he tried to decipher the cause.

When they had been kids, Patton used to get these feelings all the time for the smallest of reasons. Someone needed help getting a cup down from the cupboard, or with homework, or had gotten into a fight with another Side and they’d hurt each other’s feelings. There wasn’t much he could do most of the time, since he was just as small and immature as they were, but he’d always done what he could to fix the problems at hand. The older he got, the better he became at handling them, but the others had grown up and more independent too, of course, so he was needed less and less often as time wore on.

Gut Dad Instincts now were a rare occurrence, sure, but when he did get them, they were often emergencies. Roman coming back from a quest with an injury he couldn’t fix on his own, Logan stressing himself with work to the point where he’d collapse with a high fever that would last for days… When someone needed help but didn’t know how to or was too stubborn to ask for it, there was always a small, sharp twist in Patton’s gut alerting him, and he was on his own to figure out who it was from and how he could help.

When he got one this late—err, early –Patton could only fear a big, big emergency, one that would have surely woken him up even if he had been asleep. Worry swirled thickly around the Dad Instinct feeling.

Patton shot up and paused the video, listening closely. Surely, there had to be footsteps, or a door opening, or something that could alert him to who was in trouble. Something like—

Like the sound of crying a wall away.

He cursed under his breath as he scrambled out of bed and towards the nearest pair of pants lying on the floor. _No one_ in the Mindscape cried without good reason except for Patton. If someone was crying, something was _very_ wrong. He started preparing himself for the worst, for a medical emergency, or a friend of Thomas’s in trouble, or maybe even dead—

As soon as he threw his sweatpants on, Patton threw himself through his door and into the hall. He strained his ears to find the source of the noise.

Virgil.

_Oh, god, no._

He sprinted.

Skidding to a stop outside of his door, he grabbed the handle and listened closely one more time. Maybe he was just hearing things, or maybe he was awake and watching something where a character was crying…

No. No, the sound wasn’t coming from any speakers, but Patton realized with a start that it didn’t sound like it was Virgil crying. There was something familiar about it, though, something that was just on the edge of Patton’s mind that he couldn’t quite bring to the forefront.

Quietly, he risked a gentle knock.

“Kiddo?” he called, trying to keep his voice down. “Virge, are you doing alright?”

He heard a sob, followed by the shuffling of fabric.

“Daddy?” a voice whimpered.

Patton’s eyes widened, a flash of a terrified toddler diving into his arms a few weeks ago running through his memory.

“Virgil, I’m coming in.”

He’d hardly finished the sentence before he pushed the door open.

There was no denying the crippling wave of relief that washed over him when he saw no injuries on the anxious trait, but it was very quickly snuffed out when the toddler-sized Virgil let out a shuddering sob and attempted to worm his way out of the blankets to get to Patton. The Father Figure Figment rushed over and untangled him, wrapping him up in his arms as he sat down on the bed.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he whispered. “What happened?”

Virgil clung to Patton as tightly as his tiny arms would allow him, and a string of garbled attempted words tumbled out. There wasn’t much Patton could understand, but he heard the words “dream” and “Deceit” in the same breath, and he silently pieced it together. He held Virgil a little bit closer as anger bubbled up over the Dad Instincts.

“Shh, kiddo. You’re safe. D’s not going to get you here,” he said.

Letting out a loud sob, Virgil buried his face in Patton’s night shirt and shook his head.

Patton pressed a gentle kiss into Virgil’s hair and began to rock them back and forth. His heart twisted knowing this was all he could do until Virgil could calm down enough to talk it out.

Down the hall, a door opened, and set of footsteps hurried towards them. Roman appeared in the doorway a beat later; one hand gripped his sword while the other rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He still wore his red flannel pajamas and fluffy slippers, and if the situation hadn’t have been so heartbreaking, Patton would have laughed.

“What’s happening?” Roman mumbled.

Patton frowned, looking back down at the child in his arms. “He had a really scary nightmare,” he explained. “One bad enough to make him regress again.”

Roman’s eyes widened in understanding; as his free hand fell back to his side, he glanced around the room. “Is being in here going to make things worse?”

“Oh, gracious, you’re right…”

Patton peeled Virgil back just enough to peer under his eyes and check the eye shadow; sure enough, it was blacker than a witch’s cat and thick enough to rival a raccoon. The tears running down his cheeks soaked it up and left big, blotchy spots on Patton’s shirt, but they didn’t wash any of the eye shadow away.

With a grimace, Patton pulled him back against him and shifted so his head was on his shoulder and his arms tight around his neck. He carefully got to his feet and glanced at the jacket still lying on the sheets.

He turned to Roman. “Would you be willing to grab that? I’m going to bring him to my room.”

“Of course.”

The two quietly slipped around each other, and Patton steadily made his way down the hall, doing what he could to calm Virgil and keep his own emotions in check. His door was, thankfully, still wide open; he easily headed in and settled back onto the bed, pulling up his legs to sit cross-legged on top of the comforter and lowering Virgil to rest in his lap. Roman stepped in right behind them and carefully handed the jacket to Patton.

“Thank you, Roman,” Patton said. “Go back to bed. I can handle this from here.”

“Are you sure? I don’t—I don’t want to—”

Roman turned his face away, trying his hardest to stifle a yawn; when he turned back, Patton smiled softly and shook his head.

“It’s okay. Get some sleep.”

Nodding in defeat, Roman headed back to the door and gripped the knob, pulling it almost closed. “Thank you, Patton. Wake me up if you need anything.”

“That’s my line.”

Roman let out a soft laugh; the smile fell as he looked down to the toddler in Patton’s lap. “Virgil?” he gently offered. “I hope you feel better, young prince. You’re safe with Daddy now.”

Virgil sniffled and clung closer to Patton. The adults shot each other sympathetic glances before Roman bid the two good night and shut the door.

As soon as they were alone, Patton pulled Virgil away long enough to wrap him in his jacket and swipe the current tears away with the pad of his thumb. For the first time since he’d been found, Virgil made eye contact with him.

“I-I’m sorry,” he choked out.

Patton felt his heart shatter. He quickly shook his head, brushing the hair out of Virgil’s face.

“Oh, Virgil,” he sighed. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

Pulling his arms out, Virgil shook his head and wiped his eyes. He leaned away from Patton’s touch. “I woke you up! I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!”

Patton let out a short laugh. “You didn’t wake me up, kiddo. I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have been upset about waking up when you needed someone!”

Virgil sniffled, hesitantly peering up at him. “You wouldn’t…?”

“Never in a million years.” Patton slowly lifted his hand to boop Virgil on the nose. “You’re more important than a little sleep, Virgil.”

There was a beat of silence. Virgil stared down at Patton’s hand, to the dark splotches on his shirt, and then up to the gentle smile being offered to him.

His lower lip trembled, and he curled in further on himself. Tears spilled down his cheeks again as he squeezed his eyes shut. He let out a whimper and dove back into Patton’s arms.

“I-I-I’m n-not!” he sobbed. “I sh-shouldn’t be! I’m sorry!”

Patton hushed him and pulled him close, gently rocking them again. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re okay.”

Virgil began to tremble against his chest. “I don’t want to be bad…!”

“You’re not bad, Virgil.”

“I was mean to you and Ro and Lo!”

“But you know better than that now, and I’m so proud of you for growing so much.”

Patton pressed another kiss into Virgil’s hair and began to rub his hand up and down his back, all while Virgil shuddered and snuggled closer into him.

“Why-y?” Virgil whimpered.

Patton tightened his grip. “Because I love you, Virgil! A good dad’s love for his kids is always unconditional. And I always will, no matter how bad or how mean you’ve ever been or ever get. Okay? I love you, Virgil. That won’t ever change.”

They stayed like this for a long while, until all of the tears had been shed and the cries had grown silent. Though Virgil still trembled in his arms, Patton let out a soft sigh of relief that the worst was over. Carefully, he moved to rest his cheek on the top of Virgil’s head.

“Hey, sweetheart?” he muttered. “I think some sleep would really do you some good. How about we go back to bed?”

Virgil let out a weak whimper, followed by a sniffle. He was quiet for a beat.

“…Can I stay with you tonight?”

It took everything Patton had in him to not break down in tears himself at the fear lacing Virgil’s tone. His eyes squeezed shut as he nodded slowly.

“Absolutely, honey. You can come any time, big or small, okay?” he said.

Virgil nodded and gripped Patton tighter.

When it became clear that Virgil wasn’t letting go any time soon, Patton carefully maneuvered them until his head rested on his shoulder before he stood and headed to the light switch. Virgil let out a cry when the room darkened; Patton was quick to plug in the fairy lights that lined his ceiling.

They made a quick stop at Patton’s desk to drop off his glasses and get Virgil a drink of water from one of the many, many cups that lined the edges, and then the two carefully settled under the blankets. Virgil fell asleep laying on Patton’s chest almost instantly, lulled away by the steady heartbeat and calm breathing.

Patton, however, took a little while longer, mind racing with thoughts of what sort of things Virgil might have dreamt about earlier and what might have caused those fears to begin with. Heartbreak and anger swirled viciously in his gut; it took all he had to keep his heart from racing in his chest. There was nothing more that he wanted to do right now than go and confront Deceit and the other Dark Sides head-on, but the child in his arms kept him from moving. Instead, Patton pressed a feather-soft kiss into Virgil’s hair and silently vowed once again to give him as much love as it could possibly take to make up for the years of it he’d lost.

A few silent tears escaped before he controlled himself, and then he, too, was fast asleep.

* * *

Logan was _far_ from happy the next morning when he stepped out of his room and saw a little light shining from behind Patton’s door.

Letting out a huff, he smoothed out his still damp hair and adjusted his tie, preparing himself for the confrontation he was about to engage in. Honestly, he’d stressed to Patton time and time again the importance of a healthy sleeping schedule, and here he was, awake at six in the morning again, all for some silly television show that any of them could watch at any time! Knowing Patton, it wasn’t even an educational program, and that only fired Logan up even further.

He briskly walked over and let himself in, aware that Patton would simply pretend to be asleep if he knew Logan was coming to lecture him.

“Patton, I—”

He froze.

There was no sign of any sort of program on at all; in fact, the light didn’t even appear to be coming from the top light, as it normally was when Patton stayed up all night watching television. A quick glance around the room confirmed his hypothesis—the television was off, the laptop was closed and resting on the edge of his bed (much to Logan’s worry), and the only source of light was coming from the fairy lights that were rarely on.

Logan was about to question this when he heard a loud snore from Patton, drawing his attention to the bed. His frustration melted away when he realized that there lie all the explanation he needed.

Patton lay under the blankets, propped up just a bit by the many, many pillows at the top of his bed, and head resting on a large Pokemon stuffed animal. His mouth was parted just enough for any snoring to rumble the room with each breath that he took. It was common knowledge that Patton snored—he _was_ the father, after all –but it was very rare for it to ever be this loud.

However, a small figure lay on his chest, most likely applying the weight needed to increase the volume. The mass of purple and black fabric didn’t stir despite the constant movement; in fact, it seemed to be quite relaxed where it was. Soft breathing from it filled the gap in between the rumbling snores.

A tiny hand loosely gripped Patton’s night shirt, and Patton’s arm was carefully wrapped around the figure. As Logan inched closer, he noted dried tear tracks on both of their faces. Remnants of waterlogged eye shadow lingered in varying spots across the two.

From the data he’d gathered, Logan could only assume this: some sort of emotional event had taken place in the night, causing a fear of being alone, crying, exhaustion, and Virgil’s age regression.

As much as he wished to wake them and ask for more information, Logan took another look at Virgil’s sleeping form and sighed. The toddler looked just as exhausted as he did when he was an adult, even when resting.

With a shake of the head, Logan snuck back into the hall and shut the door as quietly as it would allow him to.

His questions could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> (youtuberswithalex.tumblr.com)


End file.
